Tonite was the last my  “2 soccer practices in one day” days for this Fall!!! yippeeee!!!
The soccer season is over this week. I am so excited. I really love the beginning of soccer season and I really love the end of soccer season! Kind of like summer vacation!
Anyway, I had to make dinner in a hurry and tonite that started wtih a pot of WATER….
I had almost nothing in the house and no time to shop so that is why I opted for some soup tonite.
You don’t need much to make a good pot of soup.
They say that soup is as old as the history of cooking. So “back in the olden days” and I mean REALLY olden days…. they put whatever vegetables, roots, meats or grains in water and made soup.

Most of the time when I speak to friends about making soup they all seem so surprised and want to know how I make it. The fact is that I rarely follow a recipe for soup. I usually just start with my biggest pot of water and add to it what I have handy.

Of course I have to say that I ALWAYS have my staples on hand…Carrots, Onions and Celery and even that alone makes a nice broth. But I usually add whatever else I have…
It could be diced zucchini, potato, squash, tomatoes, corn, broccoli, green beans, asparagus,peas, sweet peppers, spinach, cabbage, or whatever else. I often will add some beans if I want it to be heavier, and of course there is the meat factor. There is chicken, mini beef or turkey meatballs, shredded beef or pork or whatever you want.

For me today, I made a vegetable soup (that means NO MEAT)
and here is what I put in my water…..

• Carrots (8)
• Onions (1 lg)
• Potatoes (5 med white)
• Celery (5 stalks)
• Zucchini ( 2 lg)
• Corn (1/2 bag frozen0
• Cabbage (about 1/4 head)
• Beans (1 can)
• Tomato (2 big ladle-fuls of the leftover tomato sauce from the day before that I had in the fridge!)
• Garlic ( about 8-10 cloves crushed thru a garlic press)
• Pesto (at the last minute, I threw in one ice cube of my homemade pesto —wow what a great flavor addition!!!
• Salt and Pepper to taste (don’t salt til close to the end because as the water boils out it can become too salty )
• Pasta (this time I used angel hair pasta that I broke into about 1 inch pieces)

Everyting was chopped/diced rather small and if you don’t want soup that is all starchy, the BEST way to make soup with pasta in it is to cook the pasta separately, drain it…and then stir a smidge of olive oil in it so it doesn’t all stick together.  Then, put in a scoop in each bowl before pouring the soup over top.  Sprinkle with grated cheese and serve with some crusty Italian bread.

Now let me remind you that this is how much I made for my family of 8.  What I will also tell you is that from that one pot of soup, I got dinner, late nite snack, lunches for the kids the next day in a thermos,  and my lunch at home and there was still some to put in a plastic container in the freezer and will just need to be re-heated on another day!

This may sound boring but soup is something you can vary by which veggies you have, what spices you add and of course meat and grains.

 So…why did I title this “Vegetable soup/Minestrone”?  Well because when I was growing up we had a restaurant….named of course  ROSETO (after my Dad’s hometown in Italy) and my Aunt Tettina who worked in the kitchen and our Chef Luigi taught me many things over the years….sometimes they actually took the time to teach me something because I was always full of questions on how to make something and then of course they probably taught me more than they ever thought because I WATCHED!  I was like a spy on a secret mission…always watching what they did, how they made something whether it was early in the day during “prep time” or on the “line” when the restaurant was packed on a Saturday nite.

One of the things that was a popular staple in our restaurant was our Minestrone Soup.  It was thick, hearty comfort food and just plain old GOOD…especially with that thick slice of Italian bread on the side.

So…when you don’t know what to make for dinner but you have a bunch of veggies in the bottom of the fridge or some in the freezer, start chopping…and please get in the habit (if you aren’t already) of always keeping onions, carrots and celery on hand because they are a base for SO many good things in the kitchen!

♥Dorina

Occasionally when I am somewhere that makes me happy, instead of taking a picture, I write a picture instead. I will sit and just write what I see. When I read these snippets, I am back where I was when I wrote it.

Please let me welcome you to my hometown in Italy of Roseto Valfortore for about 20 minutes of my time there…
I had walked to piazza and then was sitting at a small table in front of the bar this early morning….the sky was bright, the air was fresh, and the town was waking up….

As I walk down the street in the morning, Donatella is sweeping the street with a smile on her face. Another woman who’s name I always forget but whose daughter Angela is married to Domenico catches up with me and talks about going to the doctor who isn’t in yet…still. Of course the doctor is on vacation at the moment so there is someone else…a forestiere..(an outsider/foreigner/not from our town) working in his place. I asked if he was good and she then goes into the story about how they’re all good when they heal you and all bad when they leave a piece of gauze inside and kill you!
Ahhh…what a morning!
Of course going into Bar Italia to get my morning coffee, I barely get greeted by Pinucccia..I asked how she is this morning but she is pre-occupied with something at the moment so I just got a quick smile and nod…
But all of a sudden a truck full of guys from out of town pop in for coffee right now and you can hear her greeting outside…what was on her mind before now completely gone as the new pre-occupation of serving all these young men comes to the forefront…ever the hostess, the mother to those who don’t have one for the moment!
Now that they have gone, she comes to chat with me for a minute. But then off she goes for another customer!
Rino the barber stops and says “hi” -he and his wife and kids are headed to the pool this morning. He offers ma a coffee but I’ve just finished mine. Thanks!
The Carabinieri, ( a cross between State Police and National Guard!) head guy who they call “the Marshal” and another officer park across the street and walk into the bar…talking to each other, greet no one outside. Of course that is nothing new for the boss, he greets no one!
The lady who works at the Commune (pronounced co-moon-ay—equivalent to the town hall) just went by…then she realized I was here and came over to welcome me back. Big smile. Very nice to see.
Oh mornings here are a great way to start the day!!

And YES this is one of my favorite places on the planet!
Roseto Valfortore
<3 D

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Roseto Val Fortore

Roseto is a little village in the mountains of Southern Italy.  It is where my dad is from.  Actually it is where his mother was from.  His father was from another little village nearby named Castelvetere in Val Fortore.  My mother is also Italian.  Her family is from all over Italy…Sicily, Naples and Genoa.

SO …I am an Italian mutt.   I have been to a bunch of places in Italy and there are many other places I want to visit, but the one place I have spent the most time and where I truly believe I must have lived in another lifetime is that little town of Roseto.

The village itself is over 6000 feet above sea level and yet it actually sits in a valley between other mountains that rise another 200o feet on either side of the town!    It is incredibly beautiful and of course I am related to half of the town so I really feel at home when I am there!

Over 20 years ago, I had just spent two summers there in a row and had every intention of  going back the next year.  I wanted to stay til the following summer just to live there for a year and to actually BE in Italy during the soccer World Cup!  I wanted to feel the passion!…..needless to say,I never made it back to Italy… that next spring I met this great guy and instead of going to Italy in the summer, I went to California and MARRIED him!!!

Well, in 2005 while were there visiting Roseto in the summer, Enzo and Nico were seen playing soccer and invited to stay and play there.  What a thought!  We were so excited about the thought but we were still a bit nervous!  Please know that as much as I had always wanted to do this, I was still having a hard time making the final decision!

Well, the following entry in my journal from one of the days after I got home that summer from Italy, really helped tip my scale!….

______________________________

August 2005

So…I am talking to my friend Haylee espressing all my worries and fears about taking this trip with my kids and Haylee’s response was just what I needed to hear…

“Dorina, just go and don’t worry about anything….you are doing something you have always wanted to do.  Not many of us can say that.  When you are done you’ll be able to say that you followed one for your dreams.  Most other people are still just dreaming! ” 

Wow.  What a way to put it all into perspective for me.

So that’s it.  I’m doing it.  I’m yanking my 6 kids out of school and leaving for Italy.

__________________________________________________________________

AND so that is what I did.

Still chasing dreams!!!

<3  Dorina

il roseto di Roma

Il primo reportage di Romain (snaper romano un bel gioco di parole) ci porta in visita al Roseto comunale di Roma durante una bellissima giornata della scorsa primavera.

Il Roseto ospita circa 1.100 specie di rose provenienti da tutto il mondo, persino dalla Cina e dalla Mongolia. Fra le più curiose, la Rosa Chinensis Virdiflora, dai petali di color verde, la Rosa Chinensis Mutabilis, che cambia colore con il passare dei giorni e la Rosa Foetida, una rosa maleodorante.

In questi primi giorni di vero autunno facciamo un tuffo nel passato e ritorniamo al caldo sole di maggio. Per la prossima primavera una passeggiata è consigliata.

Ingresso gratuito, per informazioni e prenotazioni visite guidate: tel. 065746810 – fax 0657135413
Ingresso: Via di Valle Murcia (Aventino)
Bus: linee 81, 628, 715 oppure  Metro B “Circo Massimo”

Le foto sono di proprietà dell’autore, non ne è permesso in alcun modo l’utilizzo commerciale o la riproduzione non autorizzata. Per ricevere gli originali ad alta qualità e per ogni utilizzo diverso dalla semplice visione siete invitati a richiederne l’autorizzazione tramite email.
All photos are owned by the author, any use of them is not allowed without prior express permission from the author himself. To obtain the high resolution original copy and for any use different from the simple visualization, please ask for the authorization by mail.

Una volta all’anno il giardiniere della Hall, lo portava nel roseto. Per il vecchio era un giorno memorabile. Qui si aggirava, annusava e accarezzava con affetto per la gioia del suo cuore, in silenziosa ammirazione, senza parole per la felicità. Per il vecchio, questa era l’idea di Paradiso.

                                                          (Conrad Voss-Bark da My Garden’s Good Nigth)

 ≈                                             ≈                                             ≈

     Giovanni Giani ( Torino 1866-1937)     Il mattino delle rose. L’attesa   1906

Alfred Fontville de Breanski jr. (1877-1945)   pittore inglese vittoriano                Summer garden                              

da Artcyclopedia 

                                     ≈                                        ≈                                         ≈

Rose. Purezza e passione nell’arte dal Quattrocento ad oggi.  

E’ il titolo della mostra aperta sino al 25 ottobre al Filatoio di Caraglio a  Caraglio (Cn) che spero di riuscire a visitare.                                                             

E’ illustrata qui:                                                                                                                       

 http://www.marcovaldo.it/pagine/ita/dettaglio_evento.lasso?id=4F26D87405595235A6uoi2772D0F

// <![CDATA[//

by David J. Stewart & Andrew Friedman

At Benny Hinn’s crusades—he dazzles the crowds, plays captivating music, and manipulates the emotions of the audience; BUT, he is not of God.  What is happening is not of God.  Benny Hinn is a master con artist, who fully understands the human psyche.  I was watching one of Benny Hinn’s crusades the other day on TV.  At first impression, Benny Hinn appears as a man of God.  He has that curious and distinguishing look that mesmerizes the crowds.  Benny Hinn comes across as an extremely interesting character, with the power to hypnotize the masses with his charm, music, and exploitation of the Bible.

As I watched Benny Hinn perform on stage, it reminded me more of a rock star in concert.  There were many thousands of people in the audience, and no doubt, millions more on TV..  Just as rock-n-roll fans, the audience was in the palm of the performer, Benny Hinn.  Hinn never mentioned the word “sin,” never mentioned the word “Saviour,” but just kept talking about how wonderful Jesus is.  This is one of Satan’s greatest deceptions.  We read in Acts16:16-18, “And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.  And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.“  Just as the demon possessed woman in Acts 16:17 who spoke the truth while also serving the Devil, so does Benny Hinn speak of Jesus Christ while serving the Devil.

Hinn’s money comes mostly from people in TV land, who are foolishly conned by what they see on TV.  It couldn’t be more obvious that Benny Hinn has hired a top-notch group of manipulators to work with him.  One of the camera tricks which Hinn employs is to zoom in on certain audience members who look like they’re having a religious experience.  Seeing someone having such an uplifting experience, while hearing the emotion-producing music, and listening to Hinn ramble on with religious lingo, easily mesmerizes the viewer.  As I watched Benny Hinn, he told the audience to get ready to receive the power of the Holy Spirit.  Next, hundreds of people towards the front, dressed differently than the people in the back, all fell backwards to the floor.  It was apparent to me that the event was staged.  Then came the alleged healings.  During the healing period of the crusade, several dynamic, sharp-looking, and trained people bring forth the alleged recipients of Hinn’s healing power.  To no surprise, as is COMMON to self-proclaimed faith-healers like Oral Roberts, ALL of the healings are unable to be substantiated.  A small boy was brought up on stage, allegedly deaf in one ear since birth, but now able to hear.  Another woman in a wheel-chair was wheeled up to the platform, allegedly crippled from diabetes, then she walked on stage.  Another man was claimed to have been deaf in both ears from birth, but now was healed.  Then Hinn prompted the man to speak in an attempt to confirm the healing, and he did speak.  So when did the man learn to speak if he was deaf his whole life?

I’d like to see someone with no legs receive their legs back.  Why doesn’t Benny Hinn ever go into a hospital and empty it out of all it’s sick patients?  Why only on stage, behind the camera, while asking for money?

Benny Hinn ministries took in over $100,000,000 last year alone.  Again, I ask, why doesn’t Hinn ever use his alleged power to heal the sick people in hospitals?  The reason is abundantly clear … Hinn is a fraud.  Hinn, like John Edward, Sylvia Browne, Oprah Winfrey, Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, and so many other false prophets, EXPLOITS Christianity and God’s Word to gain wealth, prosperity, control, influence, and popularity.  God’s power is not for sale.  Do you really think God would allow anyone to exploit his power on stage, for money, and to a false prophet who praises the cult of Catholicism?  Satan is working relentlessly through today’s false prophets to UNITE Christianity with false religion, which is APOSTASY!  When Constantine declared Christianity as the official religion of Roman in 380 A.D., it led to total apostasy, and the beginning of the formal Roman Catholic cult.  Don’t be deceived, Benny Hinn and Billy Graham are false prophets who are leading ecumenical churches into the New World Order (the beast system of antichrist).  Satan knows that the easiest way to deceive people is to obscure and blur the truth of God’s Word.  This is why we see so many watered-down Bibles nowadays.  This is why we see Protestants praising Catholics, and Catholics protecting homosexual priests, and homosexuals twisting the Bible around to claim that Sodom and Gomorrah’s sin was only a lack of hospitality.  The Word of God is under attack!

The Bible teaches that the gift of healing ended with the Apostles.  The sign gifts were only to validate the message of the Apostles.  This is evidenced by the Biblical fact that the Apostle Paul, who had once been healed of a deadly snake bite, couldn’t find relief for his thorn in the flesh later in 2nd Corinthians 12:7.  2nd Timothy 4:20 also states that Paul couldn’t heal his friend Trophimus,

“…but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.”

Paul spoke of Timothy’s “often infirmities” in 1st Timothy 5:23, but he couldn’t heal his friend Timothy either.  Clearly, the “gift” of healing had ceased.  If you want to read an excellent in-depth Biblical examination of tongues, healing, and gifts, then please read FACE TO FACE WITH TONGUES by Pastor Max D. Younce.

In Benny Hinn’s crusades, he sings, he praises the name of Jesus, he places his hands on people and they fall to the ground; BUT, it is not of the Holy Spirit.  I’d like to see Benny Hinn cry one time.  I’d like to hear Benny Hinn expose the demonic Catholic religion.  Benny Hinn is a fraud!  According to a Dateline investigation in December of 2002…

Where does world-famous televangelist’s money go?

Benny Hinn has millions of believers and millions in donations

NBC News

Dec. 27, 2002 - Maybe you spotted him while you were channel surfing one night
or maybe you were already tuned in. Either way, he's hard to ignore. Benny
Hinn - televangelist, faith healer, and appointment viewing for millions of
believers. His popularity and his wealth are matched only by the devotion he
's shown by his followers, many of them desperate for help. Their stories
and his ministry play out almost every night in made-for-TV mini-dramas. But
there are other stories, other scenes that reveal much more about Pastor
Benny, caught on Dateline's hidden cameras. Correspondent Bob McKeown
reports.

   HE ALWAYS ARRIVES onstage when they begin to sing the hymn, "How Great
Thou Art."

    And whether you measure success in his TV ratings, attendance at his
live services or crusades around the world, or the money he raises, he is
unquestionably one of the most popular and successful televangelists in the
world today. His television show is available around the globe. He attracts
capacity crowds at arenas and stadiums at home and abroad. And scenes like
this one in his TV studio are a big reason why:

    Benny Hinn: "Yes Lord. A lower back is being healed. Thank you Lord.
Emphysema is being healed. We rebuke it in Jesus' name. Somebody's legs have
just been healed."

      On television or at his crusades, Benny Hinn promises that wherever
he goes, miraculous healing will follow.

    Benny Hinn: "In the name of Jesus, I rebuke the allergies out of you.
Touch! - The glory of God is in the studio. We are having a visitation in
the studio today as we have been taping these TV programs."

    Those miracles, Hinn says, can cure injury and illness - even
terminal disease.

    Benny Hinn: "The healing may happen instantly, and may happen
gradually but
 surely as God is God, your legs will work again, and your body
will be healed again."

    And according to Benny Hinn, it gets even more miraculous than that.

    Benny Hinn: "On the program today, you are going to see a clip of
this man who was raised from the dead."

    Those dramatic claims - and his dynamic preaching style - have
attracted millions of devoted followers, like Carlotta Moore.

    "When I go to a crusade, I'm going because I need to be refreshed. I
need to be renewed. I need to be revived in my spirit," says Carlotta Moore.

    Moore says she also watches Benny Hinn's TV show everyday.

    "The Bible speaks of spiritual fathers," says Moore. "That is my
spiritual father. He's a
 leader. And he is a mentor."

EVANGELIST AND FUNDRAISER

    And he is a master fund raiser as well, so along with that devotion
comes money - a lot of it. Though pastor Benny denies it, estimates of total
ministry revenue exceed $100 million a year.

    Benny Hinn insists his only mission is to preach the gospel, save
souls, and heal the sick. But is there
 more than that to the man they call
pastor Benny?

    "Dateline" looked at the ministry of pastor Benny Hinn, who claims
miraculous power flows from God through him. We'll take a closer look at all
his healings and at all the money that goes into his collection buckets.

     Hinn was born in the Middle East, raised in Canada, and modeled
himself after a faith healer, the legendary Katherine Kuhlman. Hinn started
a church in Orlando, almost two decades ago. By 1999, he'd left Florida,
building his ministry's administrative headquarters in Dallas and his TV
studio in southern California where he now lives.

    Hinn's claims of miracles have made him immensely popular, but those
healings, combined with his ministry's enormous wealth, have also triggered
scrutiny of a different kind.

      "I say he's in the business of raising money and spreading his own
celebrity," says Ole Anthony, who heads the
 Trinity Foundation - a Christian
watch-dog group that examines the workings of television ministries. The
organization operates on donations, grants, and sales of its magazine and
tapes.

    Ole Anthony himself has been highly critical of television preachers
who don't divulge the details of how they raise and spend their money -
especially Benny Hinn.

    "We've gotten most of the complaints lately from Benny's organization
and Benny's followers," says Anthony. "That became our focus, we've been
following him intently since 1993."

    "Dateline" asked the Trinity Foundation to provide access to, among
other things, documents and videotape it's collected about the Hinn
Ministry. We reimbursed the foundation for its costs.

    And we also went looking for some answers ourselves. For almost two
years, "Dateline" sought permission to videotape Benny Hinn's crusades, to
see how this affluent
 television ministry really works.

    Eventually we were allowed to bring our cameras to a crusade in
Atlanta. But the ministry made it clear we were only permitted to tape the
first hour or so. Then after Hinn's entrance, a few hymns and some saving of
souls, we were told to stop.

VIEW FROM A HIDDEN CAMERA

    So, in order to try to find out what really goes on behind the scenes
of the Benny Hinn Ministry, we attended a number of other crusades and
walked in right though the front door with everybody else. Only this time,
the cameras were hidden.

    At least once a month, somewhere in the U.S., 50,000 or 60,000 people
attend one of Benny Hinn's two-day crusades. Over the past two years, we
followed pastor Benny around the country to Hampton, Virginia; Las Vegas;
Buffalo, and a few cities in between.

    At each of the crusades we attended, the faithful began to arrive
hours before
 the service. And so did we with our hidden cameras.

    But even when you get there early, the best sections are already
taken - reserved for major donors, church VIPs and, at the back, for the
disabled and those in wheelchairs.

    In Buffalo, we found our seats high up in the bleachers and we began
recording the service in the middle of that noisy crowd with a hidden
microphone and camera.

    What brings the faithful out to see Benny Hinn is the healing. The
expectation that sometime tonight they're going to see, or perhaps even be -
one of those people who arrive desperately ill and leave miraculously cured.
 What brings the faithful out to see Benny Hinn is the healing. The
expectation that sometime tonight they're going to see, or perhaps even be -
one of those people who arrive desperately ill and leave miraculously cured.

      The script - Benny Hinn's tried-and-true formula - was always
 the
same. And it always started with the music. There's an orchestra, a heavenly
host of local church choirs, and an all-star cast of Christian headliners.
The crowd's emotional temperature seems to rise, as they anxiously wait for
pastor Benny.

    "It's organized more closely than a political convention," says Ole
Anthony, of the Trinity Foundation.. "There's the repetitive music, there's
the mood lighting, there's this whole arrangement of waiting and waiting and
waiting until he comes on stage. The band is playing, "How Great Thou Art"
and then the process starts."

    Once he arrives onstage, pastor Benny preaches, prays and spiritually
tends his flock.

    Benny Hinn: "If you mean business with God, he means business with
you."

    At a Benny Hinn crusade, you can't
 help but notice the faith of his
followers and how much they appear to believe in him and his healing
message.

    The impression one gets being among that crowd is that whatever's
happening down there on the stage, however it may or may not be
choreographed, these people have come because they truly believe.

    "There's no question that the people that are there have strong
belief or a strong want-to-belief," says Anthony, "and so they respond."

THE TENSION BUILDS

    In fact, all evening, throughout the arena, the tension keeps
building because everyone here knows what's going to happen next.

    Benny Hinn:
 "There's power here, people. Lift your hands and receive
it."

    According to pastor Benny, that "power" will soon lead to miracles:

    Benny Hinn: "By moving those legs that have been crippled for all
those years."

    This is from a highlights tape we bought from the ministry's Web
site.

    Benny Hinn: "You're tired of all the pills you've taken, and all the
needles they put in your body and all the pain you felt. Well, I'm here to
tell you, you will be healed tonight!"

      After the preaching, there's the passing of the collection buckets.
And then comes the moment when Benny Hinn makes his
 much-anticipated
announcement - God is speaking to him, he says, revealing a multitude of
miracles, actual healings now taking place throughout the arena, some of
them very specific.

    Benny Hinn: "There is a young man named George. George has HIV. But
my brother George, the holy ghost is burning it out of your body!"

    At all of the evening crusades we attended, it was about 10 p.m. when
Hinn announced God was speaking to him.

    Benny Hinn: "Another arthritis has been healed."

    Benny Hinn's ministry says that in order to verify the miraculous
healings that have taken place, it screens those who claim they've been
healed before they get up on stage.

    First, Hinn staff members talk to the people who get in line. This
screener is even a
 doctor and he evidently thinks this woman is a good
candidate to announce her healing up on the platform with pastor Benny.

    Doctor: "No pain? Great job. You couldn't do that before? (As she
moves her head around.) That is neat. Yeah, take her up there."

    The people selected by the screeners are then introduced to Benny
Hinn and the capacity crowd. Those who've been healed, and others who attend
each service, are given a blessing by pastor Benny with his own personal
touch. And whether he blows or flicks or waves his hand, the faithful are
strewn across the floor like bowling pins. So what exactly is at work here?

RELIGION OR HYPNOSIS?

    "They'd fall down," says Michael Cohen. "They'd fall backwards. He'd
blow on them. They'd fall over. And I thought these were actors that came in
and they paid them so much. And they had a string and they pulled them
 down."

    Even some who were skeptics at first soon became believers, like
Michael Cohen.

    "And when I finally went up there, I ended up falling down," says
Cohen. "I closed my eyes but I knew that Benny didn't push me. I knew I wasn't
 pulled or tugged. I knew that was God touching me."

    But Ole Anthony says he thinks it's a phenomenon that has much more
to do with mass hypnosis than religion.

    "And they watch him on television over and over and over for years,"
says Anthony. "And they see it, they expect it, they see other people
upstage are falling over right and left. Sometimes Benny falls over the
place. It's a circus. It's like professional
 wrestling."

    Bob McKeown: "But in fact he's been on the record time and time again
saying he is not a healer."

    Ole Anthony: "Of course."

    Bob McKeown: "It's God who heals."

    Ole Anthony: "Of course."

    Bob McKeown: "He's just the vessel that's been chosen."

    Ole Anthony: "What's the reason that people come to the crusades?
What's the main thing that happens onstage? That's his attraction. He
promotes himself as a healer, as a healing ministry."

    But according to former Hinn insiders, there's a great deal more to
Benny Hinn's crusades than what you see on television - and what we've found
supports that. A woman who worked at crusades said she was instructed to
look particularly for those standing in front of their wheelchairs.

    Benny Hinn: "Look at all the empty wheelchairs here in Las
 Vegas,
people!"

    Empty wheelchairs apparently imply there's been a lot of healing
going on. But for every one of the people declared healed by pastor Benny on
stage and on TV, many more leave the arena still sick or disabled.

    "Desperate people, the really desperate ones, the ones that break
your heart are at the back on the crusade, they won't let them up in the
lines," says Anthony.

    The broadcasts of Benny Hinn's crusade in Buffalo did not include
what our hidden camera captured. This man was escorted from his seat by
security guards after crying out for pastor Benny to touch his apparently
ill son. "I wanted to take my son up there and get prayed. That's all I
wanted," he said.

    So not everyone who wants to get up on stage is allowed to.. But what
happens to those who are called up on the platform to be touched by pastor
Benny? To try to find out, we attended a crusade in
 Las Vegas, and we did
our best to keep track of each and every one of the miracles Benny Hinn
proclaimed. By our count, there were 56 of them in all - many of which ended
up on this videotape we purchased through the ministry.

    This little boy said his damaged vision was cured: "And as soon as
God healed me, I could see better."

    According to one woman, her cancer was gone. Hinn said God told him a
demon had caused the cancer, and he cast it out.

    Benny Hinn: "Go out of her! It's gone!"

    One woman said she had a diseased lung.

    Benny Hinn: "The lord is asking me now to ask him to give you a new
lung."

    According to pastor Benny, she got that new lung, right there on
stage.

    Benny Hinn: "That's why she's coughing... that's why she's coughing."

    And there was this woman, who said she was cured of lung cancer. She
says: "She had cancer in the lungs. She don't have it now!"

HEAVYWEIGHT HEALING

    In his 25 years of healing, there have been thousands of similar
stories from Hinn's followers - none of them more famous than this one. At a
crusade in 1994, Benny Hinn came to the aid of the former heavyweight
champion of the world. Evander Holyfield had lost his boxing license because
a medical test had revealed a serious heart
 ailment.

    Benny Hinn (at a crusade): "The Lord is telling me right now he is
repairing Holyfield's heart completely."

    Reportedly, Holyfield promised Hinn a check for $265,000, and before
long, he got a clean bill of health, and won the world title back.

    But Benny Hinn doesn't only minister to the rich and famous.

    Bob McKeown: "And you needed a miracle."

    Belva Ventura: "Oh, did I."

    Bob McKeown: "You and your son."

    Belva Ventura: "Yes."

      We met Belva Ventura at a crusade in Worcester, Massachusetts. She
and her son had both been diagnosed with cancer. Both had been told it was
terminal. Before long, she and her son were on stage in front of 14,000
people, right next to pastor
 Benny.

    Bob McKeown: "And what did Pastor Hinn say to you?"

    Belva Ventura: "Oh, he hugged us. And he put his arm around me. And
he couldn't believe all the cancer in one family. And he said we're gonna
get this cancer out of this house right now. It's not gonna bother you no
more. And we came home, we were happy. I was healed. I know I was."

    The question is, despite all the claims, how does anyone really know
if Belva Ventura or any of the others was indeed miraculously healed at one
of Benny Hinn's crusades?

    So we asked pastor Benny to help us follow up on some of the people
we saw on his stage. Then we did some following up of our own.

    Bob McKeown: "As far as you know, the ministry has no idea whether
your cancer is still there or not."

    Belva Ventura: "No."

    Bob McKeown: "Whether you're alive or not."

    Belva Ventura: "No. No. they don't."

   Benny Hinn: "But as surely as God is God - your legs will work again,
and your body will be healed again, and your lungs will breathe again, and
your eyes will see again!"

PROOF OF HEALING?

    At all of his live crusades, Benny Hinn proclaims a breath-taking
litany of miraculous healing. Pastor Benny has said that everyone who gets
up on his platform has been checked by a doctor. His ministry also claims
 it
has a follow up process with people afterwards that it describes as
"exhaustive" and "thorough," and that medical information it collects is
reviewed first by a nurse, then by a doctor.

    So we wanted to find out how that process works and which of those
claims of miracles actually can be verified. We thought a good place to
start would be with the ministry itself. Last year, we asked Benny Hinn to
help us confirm the 56 healings we counted at just one of his crusades - the
one in Las Vegas.

      By the time we asked, dozens of those "miracles" had already been
broadcast around the world on his TV show, including the woman who Benny
Hinn said had grown a new lung right there on stage.

    Woman: "Feels like something in there, like someone was reaching in
my heart, in my lung."

    Benny Hinn: "I want you to
 go back to your earthly doctor, have him
give you an X-ray. I want to hear about it. I want a full story."

    But if Hinn knows the full story about who was healed in Las Vegas,
he's not sharing it with us. In a letter from its lawyer, the ministry
refused to provide proof of any of those healings to "Dateline."

    So since the ministry wouldn't give us any information, we did some
checking of our own about Las Vegas, and other reported healings.

    Remember the woman we met in Las Vegas who said she'd been cured of
lung cancer? With our hidden camera, we were able to go back stage to her
follow-up interview.

    Hinn staffer: "Now, what happened tonight that makes you feel God
touched you?"

    She did speak to a Hinn staff member, but it's hard to know how from
this conversation alone he could have known
 whether she was cured of cancer,
or even if she had it in the first place.

    Staffer: "That primary tumor can be one cell."

    She was asked a few questions, but it didn't appear to us that there
was any medical examination.

    Staffer: "Keep trusting God. Follow it up with your physicians. Thank
you so much. The Lord bless you all."

    Unfortunately, there's one thing we were able to determine about this
woman without the ministry's help. She died two and a half months after the
crusade. The cause was lung cancer.

    And then there was Evander Holyfield's heart ailment - which seemed
to disappear after that crusade in 1994 - touted as one of pastor Benny's
greatest healing successes.

    When Holyfield then won his world title back, it seemed a storybook
ending - except for one problem. According to the Nevada Athletic
Commission, two different clinics determined that Holyfield
 had been
misdiagnosed. His doctor had been given incomplete information about his
condition. In other words, there was nothing seriously wrong with Holyfield'
s heart in the first place. But three years later, pastor Benny was still
claiming credit for the champ's miraculous healing.

    On the "Larry King" show with Pastor Benny, he was aksed: "Evander
Holyfield credits you with curing his heart problem, although doctors said
that maybe it was misread in the first place."

    Hinn: "God healed him in one of our crusades, yeah."

    Evander Holyfield had no comment through his lawyer.

STILL DYING OF CANCER

    And remember Belva Ventura, who said Benny Hinn cast out cancer from
her and her son?

      A few weeks after that crusade in Worcester, Massachusetts, Belva's
son died of cancer. When we visited several months later, she said she hadn'
t had a follow-up call from anyone in the Hinn organization.

    Bob McKeown: "As far as you know, the ministry has no idea whether
your cancer is still there or not."

    Belva Ventura: "No."

    Bob McKeown: "Whether you're alive or not."

    Belva Ventura: "No. No. they don't. Otherwise, they would have got
hold of me. Nobody did."

    Her physicians evidently were not convinced of her claims of healing.

    Bob McKeown: "What do your doctors say?"

    Belva Ventura: "They laugh. They look at me and they laugh. They don'
t believe me."

    Belva
 still believed apparently until the end. A month after our
visit, she died. The cause, her doctor told us, was cancer.

    Bob McKeown: "If Benny Hinn, by whatever means, can give people like
that hope, is that not a good thing?"

    Ole Anthony: "Then why don't we just - why doesn't the FDA approve
snake oil? And we could have snake oil salesmen run around offering and
saying, "This little tube of water here, cost you $1,000. And if you take
it, you'll be cured of cancer." It's the same thing except he's doing it in
God's name, which makes it terrible, terrible. He's lying. False hope has to
always be exposed. It must be exposed."

    Benny Hinn says it's possible for someone to be healed at one of his
crusades only to have the illness or injury return later. Here's how he
explains it:

    Benny Hinn: "This is your Day Vegas... My
 Friend, hear this well. The
reason people lose their healing, is because they begin questioning if God
really did it."

    That, says Ole Anthony, only makes matters even worse for those who
are desperately ill.

    "Now they're twice as bad off as they were before because now,
according to Benny, they've done something wrong," says Anthony.

    After repeated requests to verify healings - specifically the 56 we
saw at the crusade in Las Vegas - Benny Hinn's ministry sent us details of
what it said were five irrefutable and medically proven miracles, but none
was from the Las Vegas crusade we were asking about.

    The cases they gave us ranged from a herniated disc, to heart
problems, cancer and Lou Gehrig's disease. When we called them, all five
people insisted they had been healed, but four of them wouldn't or couldn't
provide their medical records, and we could not speak to their
 doctors.

    As for the woman who said she'd been healed of Lou Gehrig's disease,
for which there is no known cure, we did speak to her neurologist, who said
he suspected she didn't have Lou Gehrig's disease in the first place.

    Though the ministry says publicly that the medical information it
collects is reviewed by a nurse and a doctor, in a letter to us from its
lawyer, the ministry acknowledged to us that it is ".... Impossible to
investigate and substantiate each and every one" of the healings proclaimed
at pastor Benny's crusades.

    But with our without absolute proof of the miracles, millions of
followers keep coming to the crusades, and continue to donate millions to
his ministry.

    But now, people who've worked inside the Hinn organization are
raising questions about where some of that money has gone.

Part two: Former insiders question what happened to some of the church
 money

Benny Hinn (at his crusade): "Only those who have been giving to God's work
will be spared."

    The money starts pouring in at Benny Hinn's crusades, thousands of
people filling hundreds of pastor Benny's collection buckets at every
service we attended.

    Chris Hinn: "One side cash, one side checks."

    A 1994 security tape shows Hinn staffers and volunteers counting the
collection money at a crusade.

    For three years in the mid-1990s, Mike Estrella says he was one of
those responsible for counting crusade collections in his capacity as Benny
Hinn's head usher.

    At the time, Estrella says, he was a devoted follower, and
 still
credits pastor Benny with curing his heart condition.

    Bob McKeown: "In cash, what was the biggest night you counted?"

    Mike Estrella: "In cash? Well, one night I counted $420,000."

    Steve Brock: "A dollar a day. Everybody say it with me - a dollar a
day."

    It may sound like they start out small, but the numbers soon get very
big. According to documents provided by the Trinity Foundation, and
published reports - Benny Hinn has more than 100,000 people who promise to
give him a dollar-a-day. If they keep that pledge, that would add up to at
least $3 million a month - $36 million a year.

    The people on this list seemed to be even more generous than that -
it appears some of them pledged or gave more than $100,000 apiece last year.

    Benny Hinn: "The greatest thing you can do for your finances is to
give to the work of God."

    On TV, and at his
 crusades, Hinn promises that not only will God
improve your health, but your financial life as well - perhaps by getting
you out of debt with an unexpected financial windfall. But first, you have
to give money to his ministry. Hinn calls it "sowing the seed."

    Benny Hinn: "Amen. So expect a financial harvest but you have to sow
a seed to see it happen... you may want to call your seed in today. Our 800
number is on the screen."

    Hinn follower Carlotta Moore told us she sows a seed of $12,000 a
year with pastor Benny, and that she expects to be financially rewarded.

    Carlotta Moore: "Because the Bible say [sic] what you sow, you gonna
reap. Now if you sow good things, you
 gonna reap good."

    Bob McKeown: "But might that mean that if you give money, you get
money back?"

    Carlotta Moore: "Oh yes, you will get money back. You will get money
back. Out of the clear blue sky, checks will come from somewhere. You go to
put on a dress or something, or take out a pocketbook up there in the
closet. There is $50 or $60 laying up in there. You'll be like, 'Woah, woah,
woah. Thank you, Lord.' You understand?"

    And the money Benny Hinn's ministry gets is not only in the form of
donations.

    "He sells his books, he sells his tapes, he sells everything, and is
just a money machine, and money pours in," says Ole Anothony. "He's one of
the most successful money raisers in history."

    In recent years, the Hinn ministry's total annual income has
increased dramatically from $50 million in 1997 to the latest estimates -
that the ministry says are inaccurate - of more
 than $100 million a year.
And because the ministry is registered as a church, all that money is
tax-free and Benny Hinn is under no legal obligation to make his finances
public.

    Bob McKeown: "Is there any way to know how much Benny Hinn makes?
Whether he's personally benefiting or not, and where the money goes?"

    Paul Nelson: "There really isn't, and that's why an organization like
ECFA has been formed."

    Paul Nelson is president of ECFA, the Evangelical Council for
Financial Accountability. Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, and the Salvation
Army are among its 1,000-plus members who voluntarily disclose to potential
donors more financial information than the law requires.

    "We believe that most people would like to know that the charities
that they give to are governed responsibly, that they practice disclosure of
their finances and other activities, they willingly answer questions,
 and
that they raise funds with integrity," says Nelson.

    Members release audited financial statements, including the salaries
of their ministers.

    Benny Hinn is not an ECFA member. He wouldn't tell us his annual
salary, but five years ago he acknowledged it was then between $500,000 and
$1 million a year.

    And Hinn won't specify how his ministry's money is spent, except to
say he doesn't personally benefit from any of it.

    Benny Hinn: "Every dollar you give this morning is going to the work
of the Lord."

    What Benny Hinn does tell his followers is that all their donations
are spent on God's work - for example, the expenses of his TV show and
crusades, the salaries of his staff, supporting churches and orphanages
around the world and more importantly.

    Benny Hinn: "So everything you give this morning is going for souls.
Is going for what?"

    The crowd repeats: "Souls."

    And many of his faithful, like Carlotta Moore, say they have no doubt
that's true.

    "We're not giving it to Pastor Benny, we're giving it to the ministry
to do the work the Pastor Benny has been entrusted to do," says Moore.

    But this former Hinn ministry staff member says he has reason to
question pastor Benny's sincerity.

    "And Benny was laughing and joking and saying, 'Hey guys watch how
much money I make tonight,'" says Michael Cohen.

    For years, Michael Cohen and his wife were church members. He also
belonged to Hinn's security detail, traveling the world with
 him. Cohen
recalls an incident after a service at the church where he says pastor Benny
bragged about his financial conquests.

    "Like one little grandmother one time came up and cried, I think she
said, this is my last $5. And we got back in the Green Room and he said,
'Ha, I got her last $5, guys,'" says Cohen.

    The ministry says the incident never happened.

    As for his lifestyle, pastor Hinn has explained that some of the
perks he has enjoyed like custom-made suits and expensive cars have been
paid for by his personal income, including the royalties from his many
books.

    While that may be true and legal, it's only part of the story.
According to the Trinity Foundation, the biggest customer for pastor Benny's
books is pastor Benny's own ministry. Trinity says the Hinn ministry buys
thousands of the books for which Hinn apparently collects the royalties.

    The ministry then
 offers them for sale at crusades and on its Web
site, and gives them away to donors.

    According to Paul Nelson of ECFA, that kind of business deal is too
close for comfort, and wouldn't be allowed if Hinn belonged to his
organization.

    "Our standards prohibit the royalty in that case going to the
individual," says Nelson. "The royalty must go for the benefit of the
ministry."

    The Hinn ministry also spends a great deal on pastor Benny's
lifestyle when he's on the road. These records show hotel suites for well
over a thousand dollars a night and transatlantic flights on the Concorde -
at more than $8,000 round trip. That is, before pastor Benny began flying in
a multi-million-dollar private jet.

    But Hinn contributor Carlotta Moore says that use of money given to
Hinn's church for God's work is just fine with her.

    "I'm pretty sure NBC's man that owns NBC probably got his own
 jet and
multimillion dollars," says Carlotta Moore. "Probably got houses here,
houses there, and this that and the other. And I believe that the preachers
of the gospel, I believe they should live better than even NBC's president."

    But Benny Hinn's followers may not know about how all of their
donations are spent. For example there's Hinn's palatial new home, now being
built for $3.5 million in an exclusive gated community overlooking the
Pacific Ocean.

    The plans call for more than 6,000 square feet - 7 bedrooms, 8
bathrooms and a basement garage with enough space for ten cars. Who's paying
for that? Not pastor Benny. That mansion on the Pacific is considered the
Hinn ministry's church residence or "parsonage," and the ministry is picking
up all the expenses for land, construction, even property taxes.

    The ministry says the house is a good investment, but Paul Nelson of
ECFA says Benny
 Hinn should be concerned about the perception of that house
deal. He says the expenditure of millions of dollars of church money on a
house for it's leader, is almost unprecedented.

    Bob McKeown: "Are you aware among your membership of any church
residence, parsonage, that is worth $3 million?"

    Paul Nelson: "I am not aware of that."

    Bob McKeown: "Not Billy Graham's..."

    Paul Nelson: "I don't believe so. No."

    Bob McKeown: "...residence? Pat Robertson's?"

    Paul Nelson: "I don't believe so."

    However it managed to pay for his house. Benny Hinn's ministry has
apparently had problems finishing other special projects.

    Since February of 2001, the Hinn Web site has been soliciting
donations for a new orphanage to be built in this little town outside Mexico
City saying it would be finished "soon.."

    But when we checked in Mexico, more than a
 year-and-a-half later, we
could find no sign of any construction. But the Hinn web site kept promising
that construction would be finished in, "a few short months."

    That was news to the local official in charge of construction in the
town, who told us the Hinn ministry hadn't even been issued a building
permit yet.

    What we did find, however, was this sign - curiously not in Spanish,
but English - attached to a house the ministry called it's 'temporary
orphanage,' which appeared to be empty. The Hinn Web site continued to
solicit donations.

    And then there was pastor Benny's most ambitious project - his $25
million healing center to be built in Texas.

    Benny Hinn: "And the Lord said to me to build a healing center that
people can come to 24-hours a day, any day of the week to be prayed for and
get
 healed."

    That was Benny Hinn raising funds for the project in 1999, but this
was Benny Hinn on a Christian telethon a year later: "Many of our wonderful
friends have called and said, 'What's with the healing center?' and
basically what the Lord has said to me is to wait for his voice."

    Hinn announced that God had told him to postpone construction, so he
said he was going to spend that money on other things.

    Benny Hinn: "I am putting all the money we have in the ministry to
get out there and preach."

    According to ECFA's Paul Nelson, that kind of unilateral diversion of
funds would simply be unacceptable.

    "They're creating a backlog of funds and they're not really released
to spend those funds on anything else,"
 says Nelson.

    But now apparently, pastor Benny has changed his mind again and says
the money raised for the healing center is being held in special ministry
accounts until the time is right.

    Benny Hinn: "The day will come, I am in no hurry, neither is God. The
day will come I will fulfill that vision."

    Remember Mike Estrella, who was the head usher at Hinn crusades? He
says one night, the ministry's chief executive officer offered him a wad of
cash taken from the collection.

    How much money? Mike Estrella says thousands.

    According to Estrella, the man who took that money from the
collection buckets was pastor Benny's righthand man, CEO Gene Polino.

    "I just push it back," says Estrella. "One day he told me
 these
words, he says 'Mike, if you follow me and listen to me, I guarantee one
thing, you never have to work again.'"

    After that Mike Estrella says, he began to watch Gene Polino more
closely.

    Estrella: "One time, Polino says give me all the hundreds and all the
fifties. And I did that. And many of them went to his pockets."

    Now how does he know that? "Because I saw him doing it," says
Estrella.

    In a telephone interview, Gene Polino, now retired as Hinn's CEO,
denied those claims.

    Gene Polino told "Dateline" he has "no problem" with Mike Estrella,
but that the former head usher sometimes got "confused." But two years ago,
in a deposition given under oath, Benny Hinn's 's brother Christopher, who
worked in a crusade counting room, testified he too saw Gene Polino
regularly stuff $50 and $100 bills into a bag. Christopher Hinn also
testified that the ministry CEO told
 him "...don't worry about it." Hinn and
Estrella both say they don't know if Polino kept the money they described
seeing him take.

    But Gene Polino told us none of it happened, insisting he never took
any money from the collections.

    Bob McKeown: "You categorically deny that?"

    Gene Polino: "Surely."

    Polino was never charged with any crime and the ministry says he did
not engage in any wrongdoing while employed by the church.

    Christopher Hinn and Mike Estrella both say they told Benny Hinn what
they saw, and we wanted to ask him about it. Through his lawyers and
spokesmen, Hinn repeatedly turned down our request for an interview. We
finally approached him outside his hotel after a crusade in Buffalo last
year.

    Bob McKeown: "Pastor Hinn, I'm Bob McKeown from 'Dateline, NBC.'
Could we have a word with you? We would like to arrange an interview. As you
know,
 we've been trying to contact you."

    Benny Hinn: "I'm so tired right now. I'm worn out."

    Bob McKeown: "Well, we would be pleased to do it at any time you'd be
available."

    Benny Hinn: "Alright."

    Bob McKeown: "In the near future. But as you know, we've been trying
to do this for several months now."

    Benny Hinn: "I know, I've been so busy."

    Bob McKeown: "And we haven't had much luck with you."

    Benny Hinn: "No, no, no, no, hey, hey, hey, gentlemen, please."

    Bob
 McKeown: "We seem to be having a bit of a problem with your
security detail here."

    Benny Hinn: "I know, I'm sorry about that."

    We did eventually get a final answer from Benny Hinn to our interview
request - it was still "no."

    Benny Hinn's brother Christopher has left the ministry after a
dispute with his brother, and the church says it has had no further dealings
with him.

    As for those other former Hinn insiders, head usher Mike Estrella and
security man Michael Cohen, they say that when they tried to complain to
pastor Benny about abuses in his organization, they were fired.

    In another letter from its lawyer, the ministry says Mike Estrella's
allegations are "unfounded and
 unsubstantiated," and that he was "... Acting
irresponsibly, maliciously or suffered from some impairment when making the
charges."

    As for Michael Cohen, the ministry says, "he is motivated by a
misguided personal vendetta against pastor Hinn and the church..." and
called him an "...unstable and unreliable source."

    Bob McKeown: "What would he say about you now, and the things you're
saying about him?"

    Michael Cohen: "He may tell people that haven't been around for
years, that I'm a disgruntled employee. The fact is, when I first started
working for him, for two years, I wouldn't even take a paycheck."

    Bob McKeown: "Do you believe that he has healed people? "

    Michael Cohen: "No."

    Bob McKeown: "Or that people are healed because of him?"

    Michael Cohen: "No. I don't. I believe that people have been healed.
It's God's power, it's not Benny's. Benny, in the
 last couple of years,
wields this power around likes it's his power."

    Cohen and Estrella maintain they were true believers, who put their
faith in a man they thought could bring hope and healing to millions.

    "What I saw was a big business rolling millions of dollars every
year, many people getting rich," says Mike Estrella. "And the rich getting
richer, and the poor getting worse."

    But then, there's Carlotta Moore, a pastor herself, who like millions
of others says she still believes in Benny Hinn.

    She says, "Pastor Benny's job is the work that God has called him to
do, to be that mediator, that channel for that anointing that God has placed
on his life, the work that God has called him to do, to carry that work out
here on Earth."

    Benny Hinn (at a crusade): "Stand up, lift your hands, and
 receive
from heaven, in the name of Jesus!"

What more information do you need?
Benny Hinn is a manipulator who EXPLOITS the Gospel and Christianity.

You are a false prophet, a liar, & a misled snake in the grass who has no truth in him. It’s a shame, really. you ought to read my testimony of miracles that occurred in my life when Jesus Christ made Himself known to me, in 11/06/2006. Typically, many pagans lack the courage to view my testimony in it’s entirety, but hopefully, you’re not as cowardly as the rest of your type usually is.

According to you & your pride, Jesus Christ is “fake”. but you just keep telling yerself that, & when you begin to beg Him for yer eternal life at the end of time, yer gonna look back at every single time He tried to send one of us your way to try to get you to see the truth about who He is, & the miracles that He could have performed in your life, but out of all that worldly garbage pride you people so covet, you chose not to. So be it. It’ll be your loss, & you’ll have no one else to blame for your getting tossed into hell, but yourself.

I hope that you will come to your senses, my main man. the test for you at this time is this: Do you have courage? Are you that eager to avoid an eternity writhing in agony in hell? Let us see, if you are brave, or if you are a sorry sucker of Satan. Y would you wanna side with an eternally- condemned deity (Satan) who will do nothing but get inside your head to fuck with yer health, both physically & spiritually? Surely you cannot be that much of a sorry sucker, are you? Or is it that you’re just plain weak? Because anyone who has either heard of an extensive story of miracles that Jesus Christ the King of peace performs in one of our lives, or if one of you have read one of our extensive testimonies of the miracles that He’s done in our lives but refuses to give Him a chance anyway, is nothing more than a sucker, & a coward — PERIOD.

Don’t you know that Satan is nothing more than a permission boy? He’s just some bullshitter & a chicken shit, who every time he hears the name of Jesus Christ, he runs like one. Oh & just so you know my man … we as the born again Christian have power over witches & warlocks. So getting cute with us will only get the fire returned back to you, alrghty then? Hahahaha …

Keep in touch, my main man.

Sincerely,

Andrew Friedman

http://delta-flt1189.xanga.com/703169840/miracles-that-actually-happened-to-me-on-the-night-of-11062006/

DELTA_flt.1189@yahoo.com

E’ stato ufficializzato il calendario dell’Estate Rosetana: dal 12 luglio, con la Festa della Montagna, al 22 agosto, quando si terrà il Rock Festival, Roseto Valfortore sarà animata da quasi due mesi di eventi.

Il 22 e il 23 luglio, Roseto Valfortore mostrerà il meglio della sua tradizione enogastronomica in una 48 ore di gusto organizzata con la collaborazione della Regione Puglia.

La mattina il divertimento avrà il suo luogo principe nella piscina del centro visite Mulini ad Acqua, mentre la sera sarà l’Anfiteatro ad accogliere tra le sue braccia di pietra chi vuole tirare fino a tarda notte con la musica: il 24 luglio concerto di Sugar Sound, cover band di Zucchero; il 29 sarà la volta di Abbeyroad, cover band foggiana che ripropone i brani dei Beatles; il 31 luglio, invece, l’anfiteatro ospiterà “La buona novella”, un musical ispirato alla grande musica di Fabrizio De Andrè.

La Sagra del tartufo inaugurerà gli eventi d’agosto e sarà il primo di 16 appuntamenti tra serate danzanti, arte, teatro, sport e tantissimi concerti.

Fonte:
http://www.teleradioerre.it/news/articolo.asp?idart=45598

The Mystery of the Bride

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” – John 20:29

Mercoledì 24 Giugno 2009

Da Mercoledì 24 Giugno, per ogni mercoledì fino al 2 Settembre, si svolgerà il Mercatino dell’ Antiquariato di Roseto degli Abruzzi (TE). Presso Piazza della Libertà, 60 espositori di piccolo antiquariato, collezionismo ed artigianato metteranno in mostra i loro prodotti dalle 17:00 alle 24:00.

Per informazioni su modalità di partecipazione Tel. e Fax 0736/256956

La rosa è forse uno dei simboli più forti nel mondo metafisico. È anche uno degli strumenti più facili da trovare che possono essere usati per la magia di tutti i giorni. Regalare una rosa è anche uno dei modi più semplici per dire “Ti amo”, senza tanti abracadabra. Le spine dei suoi gambi rappresentano le trafitture dell’amore e gli ostacoli da superare per la realizzazione dei nostri desideri. È il culmine della purezza metaforica e simbolizza il completamento e la perfezione.

L’elemento associato alla rosa è l’Acqua ed essa è perciò particolarmente amica dei segni zodiacali pesci, cancro e scorpione. È dominata sia da Mercurio che da Venere. Si dice che fare il bagno nei petali di rosa o in acqua di rose (distillata dai boccioli) porti colui che fa il bagno verso la bellezza. Un antico costume consiste nel cospargere sul letto dei novelli sposi dei petali di rosa per addolcire i primi rapporti carnali. Nelle antiche formule alchemiche la rosa rossa viene usata come principio maschile e la rosa rappresenta il principio femminile o ricettivo. La combinazione dei due (forse coltivando due cespugli intrecciati in giardino) rappresenta l’amore e l’unità.

L’olio di rosa, che viene estratto dai petali del fiore con un processo abbastanza costoso, è anche un elemento preminente nei rituali d’amore e di guarigione. Si crede che, se applicato alle tempie, l’olio curi il mal di testa; se applicato sulle cosce o sul seno attragga un corteggiatore. Si ritiene che, in quanto olio essenziale, l’essenza di rosa lenisca la depressione, la sindrome premestruale e la depressione post-partum. Si pensa anche che curi la frigidità e l’impotenza. I Rimedi alle erbe del Dr. Bach contemplano un distillato di Rosa canina. Si crede che metterne alcune gocce sotto la lingua aiuti i pazienti a liberarsi da un’abitudine o dalla sensazione di essere senza speranza e intrappolati dal destino. L’acqua di rose è usata negli incantesimi per cucinare e viene aggiunta al curry e ai miscugli delle torte per pervadere il piatto di spiriti buoni e qualità che attirano l’amore. L’acqua viene anche spruzzata sul viso (non attorno agli occhi) per rendere la propria carnagione idratata come un fiore.

Storicamente la rosa simboleggia i genitali femminili ed è associata a Cupido, Eros, Adone, Afrodite, Iside, Athor e Demetra. L’acqua e i petali di rosa sono spesso usati nei rituali magici per onorare questi dei.

Anche se le rose rosse sono tradizionalmente considerate i simboli della lussuria e dell’amore, il fiore è anche da lungo tempo associato a qualità come la purezza, la compassione e la perfezione divina. In particolare, la rosa bianca corrisponde alla Vergine Maria e allo Spirito Santo.

Il colore della rosa è anche ricco di significato. Le rose rosse simboleggiano amore, sesso e passione. Le rose rosa suggeriscono amicizia, gioia, entusiasmo, gratitudine e divertimento. Le rosse gialle possono rappresentare entusiasmo, ma secondo alcune tradizioni popolari, la rosa gialla può simboleggiare il tradimento o il “crimine perfetto”. Le rose arancio sono segno di entusiasmo, passione e desiderio di vivere. Le rose bianche simboleggiano importanti traguardi della vita (anche morte, nascita e matrimonio), amore incondizionato, purezza e innocenza.

Il fiore non è l’unica parte della rosa che viene usata nella divinazione e nella magia. Per scoprire il proprio futuro in amore, le donne usavano raccogliere tre foglie verdi di rosa e dare a ciascuna il nome di un corteggiatore. L’anima gemella era quello la cui foglia durava più a lungo. I cinorrodi possono essere infilati in un filo come perline e portati a mo’ di collana per attirare l’amore. Si crede che bere una tisana a base di cinorrodi aumenti i poteri divinatori.

Ironicamente per un fiore che viene spesso offerto in dono, si dice che le rose più potenti siano quelle rubate dal giardino di un’altra persona.

Dopo l’intervista con i Liberpool, nella puntata odierna di “Non le mando a dire… le dico su Antenna” abbiamo parlato del testamento biologico che diventa legge in Svizzera, delle difficoltà che sono costretti ad affrontare i terremotati abruzzesi e della sentenza della Cassazione sulle telefonate in ufficio fatte dai dipendenti pubblici.

Clicca sul tasto play per riascoltarle.

Quattro chiacchiere con i Liberpoll
Sono Alessandro De Simone, Gabriele Gallassi e Andrea Capoti i ragazzi che dopo l’avventura Lùnapop hanno fondato i Liberpool.

In Svizzera il testamento biologico diventa legge
Il testamento biologico diventa legge in Svizzera, e la Chiesa approva e benedice.La legge entrerà in vigore il primo gennaio 2012.

Rischio digiuno per gli sfollati nel camping
Oltre 200 sfollati hanno rischiato di rimanere senza mangiare perché il titolare della struttura ricettiva non ha ancora ricevuto i rimborsi.

Sì della Cassazione alle telefonate private dall’ufficio
Le telefonate private dall’ufficio sono lecite se “sporadiche” e “urgenti”. Per tutte il dipendente pubblico rischia una condanna per peculato.

Performance della compagnia di Ariella Vidach nel roseto della Villa Reale di Monza

Stasera si ricomincia. Fra situazioni drammatiche, non ultima l’esondazione del fiume Vomano, si ricomincia. L’appuntamento è con la semifinale di andata della coppa Abruzzo a Roseto, presso lo stadio Fonte Dell’Olmo a Roseto ore 20.30. Certamente un appuntamento che passa in secondo piano proprio a causa di tutto quello accaduto da 2 settimane a questa parte nel nostro Abruzzo ferito.

Ma, come recita una famosa canzone, ‘ The Show Must Go On’! La gara metterà di fronte il Teramo, primo nel girone A di promozione e la Rosetana terza nel girone B sempre di promozione. La coppa Abruzzo per i diavoli rappresenta un altro traguardo da poter raggiungere in questa stagione dei record dove, in campionato, la promozione in eccellenza è stata già acquisita. I Rosetani, invece, avranno la coda dei play off per poter festeggiare l’eventuale promozione in eccellenza. Gara che potrà servire ai BiancoRossi anche per confrontarsi con un’ottima squadra del girone B che avrà sulla panchina Bizzarri, non molto amato dai tifosi del Diavolo…

Buona Coppa.

I am glad to see that M. Gladwell in his last book  takes as example a village located in Apulia, the Italian region when I am from, to demonstrate how the lifestyle can influence the life expectation of a community.

Below a description of isolated village in the Apulian countryside from the first chapter.

Roseto Valfortore lies one hundred miles southeast of Rome, in the Apennine foothills of the Italian province of Foggia. In the style of medieval villages, the town is organized around a large central square. Facing the square is the Palazzo Marchesale, the palace of the Saggese family, once the great landowner of those parts. An archway to one side leads to a church, the Madonna del Carmine — Our Lady of Mount Carmine.

Below a description of the  lifestyle of  Roseto’s Paesani  before that most of them emigrated to America.

For centuries, the paesani of Roseto worked in the marble quarries in the surrounding hills, or cultivated the fields in the terraced valley below, walking four and five miles down the mountain in the morning and then making the long journey back up the hill at night. It was a hard life. The townsfolk were barely literate and desperately poor and without much hope for economic betterment — until word reached Roseto at the end of the nineteenth century of the land of opportunity across the ocean.

Here the analysis given by Gladwell to show that how people we sorround ourself have a profound affect on who we are even influencing our life expectection.

You had to look beyond the individual. You had to understand what culture they were a part of, and who their friends and families were, and what town in Italy their family came from. You had to appreciate the idea that community — the values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with — has a profound effect on who we are. The value of an outlier was that it forced you to look a little harder and dig little deeper than you normally would to make sense of the world. And if you did, you could learn something from the outlier than could use to help everyone else.

Here the excerpt from the First Chapter of Outliers – M .Gladwell